Christopher Muller on his still life photography: "Although the individual photographed objects are all instantly recognizable, the arrangement as a whole does not correspond to an immediately recognizable situation. This artificiality implies intentionality and differentiated looking. The viewer becomes the focus for the concentrated observations of the camera. A non-linear, pictorially complex composition based on formal characteristics and associations suggests a possible structural interpretation of the picture but there is no easily identifiable hierarchical pattern of perception and understanding. The relative simplicity of the object’s design makes it possible to establish clear formal correspondences, and the object’s lack of symbolic significance allows the viewer greater freedom to make associations of his own. The convincing illusionism of photography and the neutrality of the photograph’s surface foster dialogue between the viewer and the objects.

Neither the practical, everyday nor the aesthetic reading can be sustained for long before the one inevitably shifts into the other. In the search for structural content, the photographed objects seem to dissolve into their constituent formal characteristics. Alternatively, no matter how significant a chair, with its specific formal qualities, may be within the composition, it may always also be perceived as a potential place to sit down. These shifts sensitise and refine our perceptions of the objects. The viewing process reflects moments of self-awareness – as emotional content is inevitably linked to the responses and projections of the viewer."

from: The Measure of All Things: On the Relationship between Photography and Objectswww.christopher-muller.de/etextg.html